Highlights: CNY hikes

Sorry...free time has been at a premium of late.

Over the Chinese New Year holiday, we took part in four hikes. Here are the highlights:

Jiajiuliao Hike (Tuesday)

Intrepid hikers about to start.


This scene reminded me of the lyrics of a Leonard Cohen song: "And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers":


On the main trail from Wulai to Sanxia.


An Aboriginal Christian shrine at a major resting point on the trail. Notice the little Jesus and Mary statues. There's also a Santa Claus. The corner where this shrine is located marks the point where a side trail descends to one of our favorite swimming holes, where there's a natural water slide. We went straight on.


Red tree in a green forest.


Crossing the rickety bridge.


A picnic lunch in the shelter. This is a place where we usually encounter local Aborigines brewing tea and enjoying the day. We had the place to ourselves this time.


Here's the shelter from the outside.


Next to it is what we call the FarEasTone Hotel...a hut with a platform where you can sleep should you decide for some reason to camp out here for the night. Bring your own sleeping gear.


We trudged on through the mud and drizzle, until we came to a stream crossing. We stayed here and chatted for a bit before heading back. On a finer day, with an earlier start, we could follow the trail all the way to Xiongkong (Bear Hollow) near Sanxia.


Xindian Hike (Wednesday)

It was a beautiful day, and we itched to get out. It was just Kitty and me this time. We started at Bitan.


A lot of people were here enjoying the day. It's a popular place to rent paddleboats.


We crossed the famous suspension bridge. It was a little unnerving walking across with the bridge swaying erratically.


We walked along the road to a hill community, just to explore. I had the sudden need to go to the bathroom. The guy at the community guardhouse was kind enough to let me use the loo. While Kitty was waiting, she discovered a big sign with a map to the trail we were looking for.

We passed through a butterfly trail, but there weren't too many butterflies to be seen at this time of year.


On the way up, I found a maqaw tree (Litsea cubeba). This is the spice that the Atayal people use, mentioned in my Trip to Wulai entry. The berries have a strong lemony scent.


We climbed to the top of Hemeishan, which overlooks Bitan.




Then we went down and had roti at Athula's Curry and some stinky tofu in the Bitan night market.

Sishoushan Hike (Thursday)

This is an easy hike accessible from downtown near Taipei 101. We started out by climbing Elephant Mountain. In fact, this is an ideal place to take photos of Taipei 101...when the air is clear. (It was a little hazy this day.)


A butterfly fluttered by. This is a female staff sergeant (Athyma selenophora laeta).


Two dogs (Canis lupus familiaris).


Like most trails close to the city center, it is well paved and maintained.


Here's an image well-known to hikers in the area. Some guy hikes along trails in the area leaving his mark: this smiling visage. Nobody knows who this vandal is, but local hikers call him the 笑臉怪客 (smiley face weirdo).


After a steep climb up the trail, we came to the ridge. Here we found an aerial lift used for transporting equipment (and perhaps staff) up to a TV relay station.


Nine-Five Peak








And we ended up at Cihui Temple, at the base of Tiger Mountain.


Maokong Hike (Sunday)

Jenny's friend Filippo, who's in Taiwan for a semester, joined us. We hiked up the Thousand Steps from the back of National Chengchi University up to Zhinan Temple, then along the Tea Pickers' Trail to Maokong. We lunched at Xiaomuwu (The Little Cabin), our favorite restaurant up there (I had the carbonara). Then we continued on to the ridge above Maokong.

Here we are at the arrival point on the ridge:


Back down in Maokong, we came to this area where people were selling food. The woman on the right is selling corn dogs. Pictured here are Filippo, Patty, Kitty and Kate.


After that, we walked to Zhangshan Temple before heading back down to Muzha.

Divining blocks at Zhangshan Temple. Locals take a pair of these, say a prayer, and throw them on the ground. If, three times in a row, they land one flat-side up and one flat-side down...


...then they can proceed to Step 2, which is to randomly select a divining rod from this holder. On the rod is a number that corresponds to one of the drawers on the side.


Inside the drawer is a slip of paper with obscure writing on it. The devotee then takes it to the temple office to have it interpreted.

RIP John DeFrancis

On January 2, one of the greatest modern American scholars of the Chinese language passed away.

John DeFrancis was born in the waning months of the Qing Dynasty, and first went to China during the Great Depression to seek out business opportunities. That experience, which included traveling across China on camels and rafting down the Yellow River on an inflated sheepskin raft, led to his becoming a scholar of Chinese. He taught for years at the University of Hawaii, and compiled the greatest Chinese-English dictionary in the history of humanity: the ABC Comprehensive Dictionary. He was active in scholarship and dictionary compilation until the very end, at the ripe old age of 97. For DeFrancis I say:

為吾故兄奠一壺酒

(Roughly translated: "Libate a jug of wine for my late brother." In other words, "Pour out a 40 for my dead homie." By the way, is "libate" the actual verb form of "libation"?)

RIP John DeFrancis (1911-2009)

Yangmingshan Hike & Shilin Night Market

Today we drove up to Yangmingshan National Park to hike. The park is a large area of mountains and grasslands to the north of downtown, and makes a popular place for day trips.

On the way up we were surprised to encounter this critter:


We saw at least four more of these wild Formosan macaques on the road or climbing in the trees, just down the road from Chinese Culture University.

Chinese Culture University sits on a hill above Beitou, and offers wonderful views of Taipei.


We drove up to Qixingshan (Seven Star Mountain), and did a short hike to Dream Lake. This small lake is home to a rare species of quillwort, Isoetes taiwanensis.


Afterward, we had lunch, then went to Qingtiangang, a grassy area with feral cows. It was very misty, so we didn't take many photos. There was a good trail here, which we hiked along for nearly 3 kilometers.





Here are 3 of the hikers. In the middle is Katannya, who was showing off her hi-tech hiking footwear! (Crocs!) Kate was trailing behind, taking it easy because of her injured ankle.


We came to this wonderful area and had a picnic.


Then it started to rain. So we headed back. But the rain got worse and worse, until it became a downpour. Despite our raingear, some of us ended up soaked. It was a miserable hike back.

We got in the car and drove back to Town. We dropped Kat off at the MRT station, and the rest of us went to a shabu-shabu place nearby. Very good, but very filling!

Then Kate left, and the Kitty, Patty and I went to the Shilin Night Market to browse around.


This area was also visited by Andrew Zimmern. So I decided to photograph some bizarre foods. Unfortunately I was too stuffed to want to try anything. Another time.

Here's squid on a stick:


Duck tongues


Chicken parts (cocks' combs, gizzards, hearts, and some unidentifiable parts)




You can even catch your own shrimp and have it barbecued.


A little dessert of sweet tofu soup before going home.


Looks like someone took a very literal approach in attempting to translate the Chinese for "valet parking" into English:

My visit to Wulai

On New Year's Day I went on a trip to the town of Wulai (or Ulay, as it's spelled in Atayal).



It's historically a settlement of the Atayal Aborigines, and it's a popular tourist destination due to its hot springs, scenery (including mountains and a majestic waterfall), food, and Aboriginal culture. There are a lot of mountain trails in this area, and we often come here to hike, and sometimes to eat afterwards. It was pretty crowded this time, it being New Year's Day:



Following my recent pattern of visiting places where Andrew Zimmern ate, I decided to try my hand (or, should I say, mouth and stomach) at the restaurant Taiya Popo (泰雅婆婆), which sits right on the main drag. It specializes in Aboriginal cuisine.



I ordered two of the dishes that Zimmern ordered: betel palm salad (涼拌檳榔花) and tmmyan (的麼面). The latter, pronounced something like "damamein", is salt-cured pork fermented in jars. It tastes something like prosciutto with sour yogurt. The sourness comes from lactic acid produced by the fermentation of the meat, and the acid "cooks" the meat and kills harmful pathogens.



I didn't order the fried bee dish Zimmern ordered, because it was rather pricy, but when I come with others sometime I will order it then to share. Interestingly, the boss lady noticed what I chose, and asked me if I saw the Travel Channel show. I told her "yes", and she was very happy. She's the one who sat next to Zimmern as he tried the food, and she's every bit as sweet as she appears on the show. She also gave me a free cup of millet wine and wished me a happy new year.

Then I went to the Wulai Atayal Museum, which was worth a visit at NT$50 (aboutUS$1.50).



It has an interesting collection of artfacts, and gives explanations of various customs, beliefs, hunting techniques, cooking methods, and more. One diorama shows a pair of hunters, a father and son, out setting traps. Press a button, and there's a recording of a conversation. The Chinese version makes full use of Atayal accents in the Mandarin dialogue, adding an interesting air of authenticity (even though the dialogue itself is forced). The English version is presented in cheesily inflected American accents.

I remember reading a 19th century ethnography describing Aboriginal knives as being placed in half-sheaths: "The knife is of iron, eighteen inches long, sharp-pointed, and generally crooked, with a one-sided open hardwood sheath." - G. L. Mackay (1896). Well, here is one, just as described:



My main complaint was with the headhunting exhibit, which was peppered with tu quoque defenses of the practice, as if saying, "Well, yeah, sure we practiced headhunting, but who are you to judge us? After all, you Chinese killed people in wars and conquests. So are you really any better than us?" Sigh. Please, just present the facts, and stop trying to make value judgments.

At one point, I overheard the museum staff engaged in a conversation. But the weren't speaking Chinese. They were speaking Atayal!! This is the first time I had ever heard anyone converse in Atayal! Being a language geek, I was overjoyed. I attempted to use my cell phone to record their conversation, but it didn't work out.

The museum then closed (the annoucnements made in Atayal, Mandarin and English), and I went back onto the tourist drag. I saw a vendor selling sausages made of Formosan wild boar (Sus scrofa taivanus). It came in two flavors: plain and maqaw. I asked the guy what maqaw is, and he described it as "Aboriginal mountain pepper." Turns out it's a peppery, lemony spice harvested from the seeds of the native lauracea tree Litsea cubeba. I bought a sausage and it was delicious.



I decided to go back home before too many people started crowding the buses and roads.